A Welcome Step From France

April 18, 1992

Pierre Beregovoy began his term as prime minister with the surprise announcement last week that France will unilaterally stop all its nuclear-weapons testing for the remainder of this year, and will continue the moratorium if the other nuclear powers follow suit. Good.

French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific has been an emotive issue in that region for decades. The French navy has been constantly harassed by activists from the environmental group Greenpeace. The governments of Australia, New Zealand and smaller countries have urged the creation of a nuclear-free zone in the region.

The French program is widely seen as a vestige of colonial arrogance because France used the South Pacific, far from its own soil, as a testing-ground. The original inhabitants, forced from their homes on Mururoa, continue to lead miserable lives in communities elsewhere in the Tuamotu Archipelago where they still have not made a home.

Pressure from the countries in the region alone, however, wasn't enough to change the policy of the French government. Domestic pressure probably had more to do with the decision: Two French environmental parties are gaining in influence. In regional elections last month they won an impressive 13.9 percent of the vote while the ruling Socialists lost their majorities to the conservative parties. Support from the Greens and Generation Ecologie could eventually make the difference between losing government and hanging on for Mr. Beregovoy's party.

Because of its policy of testing far from home, France's program was the most internationally sensitive of all the nuclear powers'. Still, its belated initiative is welcome, and the other nuclear nations should follow suit.

Once having stopped the testing, the French government may find it politically difficult to start again, even if other nuclear powers did not follow their example. For many reasons, the French testing program should have ceased a long time ago